Our school received a donation for a fundraising auction. The donation contained many multiple items. It was going to be impossible to put so many of the same items in a single "lot" for the auction. The best items were chosen and placed in the auction, while others were given to a local charity. There are still some items left. Would it be okay to sell these items on Ebay provided that the money returned to the school?

Any advice would be appreciated!

I don't see why auctioning them on eBay would be a problem.

I think it's a fantastic idea, but how would you get the word out to the city that this auction is happening?

You may also need to run it past your school adminsitration to get their blessings.

Technology is changing everything, sometimes our superiors are not comfortable with this high tech new fangled stuff.

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On the other hand, sometimes it's easier to apologize after the fact then wait for everyone to think if it's a good idea. It's easy to list stuff on e-bay. Make sure you do a little research first so your prices are in line with what's on sale now. Check both the beginning price and completed sales. Give every item a week to sell and have it end on a weekend. More people bid on the weekend. Weigh your items so you can list a shipping price. You don't want to have too low a price and then have to ship it across the country and eat that cost. The buyer should pay all shipping and optional insurance costs. You can check the shipping price on the US post office web site. Go for it!

Smaller value items can be a real pain. I remember eating lunch at a restaurant three times and each time the restaurant owner told me to come back next week and he'd have something for me. Finally, he gave me a $10 certificate and I spent about $50 in lunches to get it!

As a business owner who makes often makes donations to silent auctions, I would not be happy with a group that had promised some publicity (which donation letters usually do) and then took an item and auctioned it on Ebay.
You might want to try and combine the smaller items into a single auction item. I certianly think it would be okay to auction items on Ebay which did not get a minimum bid. Just a few thoughts.

I have a private business and also donate to silent auctions. As long as I got an acknowledgement, I would just want the group to make the most profit possible. As Janis stated, the person donated a lot of items and most were already auctioned off at a regular silent auction and I assume they donor was mentioned then. goooo e-bay!